Houston Rockets: Team must insert Kenneth Faried into the starting lineup

Although the Houston Rockets are on a six-game win streak, their lineup can still be bolstered. How? Here’s why Kenneth Faried must start at power forward.

The Houston Rockets have taken off with a six-game winning streak; however, during this streak they are still giving up big leads and have shown they still need to improve their defensive rebounding.

The solution is Kenneth Faried. The Manimal is averaging 15 points and nine rebounds as a Rocket and has brought that intensity the team has been lacking all year.

Since joining the Houston Rockets, Faried has provided a spark and it has been contagious as the team has improved overall since he was acquired.

Faried has shown that he has been working on his game, even while he was being stashed on the Brooklyn Nets’ bench. He has displayed an improved offensive game, high rebounding rates and the same intensity that helped him gain the aforementioned moniker that he’s known for.

His play gave coach Mike D’Antoni the confidence to insert him into the starting lineup against the Golden State Warriors, currently the defending NBA champs. This move allowed for coach D’Antoni to see multiple things: firstly, how would a bigger lineup fare against the Warriors; and secondly, how would Faried stack up against a team filled with shooters as well as a team that requires heavy switching on defense.

The results? The Houston Rockets played arguably played their best stretch of games offensively and defensively through the season. Faried provided exactly what the Rockets were missing throughout 2018-19.

Faried spaced the floor, hustled, rebounded well and also was a mastermind of defensive switches while finishing the game with 20 points and 10 boards.

Back in that match up a few weeks back, Faried started off the game guarding Kevin Durant and

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things went quite well against the All-Star forward. He stayed in front of Durant and forced him to take contested jumpers in which Faried could use his length to contest.

Durant was still able to get his points; however, that likely would’ve been the case with anybody assigned to guard him. The awesome thing is that Faried provided a different look on Durant, played good positional defense without fouling and forced Durant to miss some of his shots.

Furthermore, with Faried showing that he was not a defensive liability, the Rockets were able to execute their switches smoothly. This certainly helped them provide multiple defensive looks against the Warriors’ potent offense.

With Faried exuding the notable performance that he’s had so far, the Houston Rockets can have a rotation similar to last season.

When fully healthy, the Houston Rockets can have a starting lineup of Chris Paul, James Harden, P.J. Tucker, Clint Capela and Faried. This lineup would allow Eric Gordon to come off the bench and provide a consistent scoring punch.

Additionally, with the additions of Austin Rivers and Iman Shumpert, the team will have the depth to reduce both CP3’s and Harden’s minutes.

Next. Three things Kenneth Faried brings to the Rockets. dark

What do you think? Should the Rockets keep their lineup of CP3, Harden, Gordon, Tucker and Capela or should they insert Faried into the starting lineup?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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